Rear axle track on SWB Ulster Rep

[Erich]

Hi All,

On my Ulster Rep, with a SWB chassis, my rear track is 3'7" making it a later axle. The front is a proper 3'4". The CWP housing is the Type 3 with the bolt up torque tube. I have semi Girling brakes. Would it be possible or even desirable to change the axle tubes to the shorter type, keeping the semi Girling brakes and Type 3 CWP housing. How would this be accomplished? The reason I ask is that the tyres sit near the outer edge of the wings and look rather unbalanced that way.

Sorry for the newbie question...still learning.

Erich in Seattle

[Ian Williams]

Gosh Eric, from all your posts it sounds like you have brought an Ulsteriod special but really want a reasonably authentic Ulster replica, I would suggest either enjoy what you have as it is, or sell it and build what you really want. You will be pushing the proverbial uphill trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, sorry not trying to be negative just realistic, that said you will never get an exacting replica using touring parts, close maybe, but where you draw the line is I guess up to you. However in answer to your question it depends how someone has fitted a LWB axle into a SWB chassis, probably by altering the lower leaf of the rear spring in which case its easy fit standard sports springs and the SWB axle will drop straight in. If you have a 1932 back axle the banjo is the same as a 1931 it just the side tubes which are longer, if it is a D type, which it sounds like it is with semi grilling brakes then a whole different ball game. The Semi grilling brakes are probably easier to adjust but make little difference to stopping power if you fit cast iron drums on the earlier axle, the earlier axle can be machined to accept Semi grilling backplates, but then will not be to Ulster specification which seems important to you. As I believe has already been suggested Chris Gould's guide and the A7 Companion will assist you with understanding parts interchangeability and desirability when building a special / replica whatever you call it.

[Erich]

Hi Ian,

Thank you. It is not a D type 4, but a banjo type 3 diff housing. That said, it seems that I should leave it as is. It is true that I'm finding bits that are not even close to correct. So, I'm doing the best I can, realizing that it will always be in the gray area of a replica. Is there any real advantage to the wider track? So with a '32 axle,I think I can use the '31 tubes modified for semi Girling. Since I bought it, I sourced a 30MOV Solex, proper radius arms, and a few other items. It has a mechanical tach drive off the dizzy. So it will never be an Ulster,and even very few of those have not been modified. But I've tried to make mods that "fit" like armoured wiring and proper lenses for the R 47s.

Erich in Seattle

[Ian Williams]

If it were me going back to SWB I would forget the semi girling's, they are not a huge advantage other than being slightly more user friendly. Someone is bound to disagree with me, but I am not believer in modification for the sake of it, major machining of the side tubes is required, the mod is hard to reverse, and as I said earlier with cast drums and correct set up the early brakes will stop you just as well, like it or not people that is a simple fact. Added to which Girling's today are becoming increasingly inappropriate on a 1930/31 or earlier vintage car just simply a little more idiot proof. The later wide axles have slightly improved pinion bearings in a modified torque tube and different CWP ratios but all this can be bolted onto a long nose banjo if you feel the need.
A lot of these so called "improvements" are somewhat academic for the use our cars get today, some will say their cars need them and if you are going racing or trailing then I concede its worth undertaking some well considered period alterations, I do so myself, but if you are going to drive the pub and occasional club runs..........I know some people like to tinker and if your hobby is just modifying cars because you can, well if that floats your boat go for it, just don't try to tell me it is necessary because 9 times out of 10 that is quite frankly nonsense.

[Charles P]

Hi All,

On my Ulster Rep, with a SWB chassis, my rear track is 3'7" making it a later axle. The front is a proper 3'4". The CWP housing is the Type 3 with the bolt up torque tube. I have semi Girling brakes. Would it be possible or even desirable to change the axle tubes to the shorter type, keeping the semi Girling brakes and Type 3 CWP housing. How would this be accomplished? The reason I ask is that the tyres sit near the outer edge of the wings and look rather unbalanced that way.

Sorry for the newbie question...still learning.

Erich in Seattle

If you're inclined you could dissemble the axle, shorten the outer axle tubes by cutting and rewelding and simply putting it back together with new shorter half shafts. Asssuming that it's been made to fit by modifications to the rear springs you'd also need new springs. Not in itself a difficult task but time consuming and requiring a degree of precision and skills.

Charles

[Bob Culver]

Without drastic modification of the shackle mounts, how is a lwb axle fitted to a swb car?

On a car already girling in the front is it prudent to retain previous at rear? This was the topic of recent discussion and most seemed to find the mix dubious..

Could use short levers at front and long at rear if can be fitted but a pity to trade off much of the advantage of girlings. 

In my experience girlings transformed a saloon from being disturbing to drive in everyday city traffic to being able to reasonably mix it with the flow. The main problem was wind up of the original light radius rods with violent shudder of the wheels on road.

[Stuart Giles]

Before shortening the tubes on your '32 rear axle, it'd be worth taking a good look at the overall rear end setup you have now.

Some short wheelbase cars I have seen have been created by drilling out the rivets on the front and rear crossmembers on a LWB chassis and temporarily removing them. Then sawing 6" off the rear of the chassis rails and splaying the rails in order to refit the wide track rear crossmember and front crossmember along with a shortened longitudinal member. The result is a 6' 3" chassis which is configured  for the wider long wheelbase rear axle. If yours has been so modified, changing it to accept a narrow track rear axle is going to be a significant piece of work.

[Erich]

Stuart,I will check that.As I bought the car, it should be a proper 1930 SWB chassis. It was first registered then.

Erich in Seattle

["Slack Alice" Simon]

The wider axle on my short chassis just has extra lugs welded on inboard of the old ones.

I think - the car isn't here - that the old lugs have been removed, and a longer pin goes into the original holes in the axle ends, held there by the usual cotter.

There is a spacer between the axle end and the spring.

A neat solution, but an (almost) irreversible mod to the axle case.

Simon

[Hedd_Jones]

No its not Simon. you just lop off your 'new' lugs, and weld some other 'newer' ones back where they should be. Its just a shaped lump of metal with a 1/2 hole in it. The trick would be making it tidy